We are the ghouls of London // PHAN

•CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE•

WATGOLmas day 2 x

•••

After Dan collapsed on top of the dead body, Phil quickly scrambled over to him at his side, calling his name, "Dan? Dan? Dan!"

He was worried about him. Phil had just witnessed his friend ... 'friend' ... killing this ghoul which had been attacking Phil in the first place to help defend Phil and protect him.

Why?

Why did Dan save him? What motivated him to appear and push the ghoul off of Phil and then kill it? What had been running through his head at that moment?

Looking back towards Dan's body, Phil could see it wasn't moving; but he also knew ghouls had no pulse so Phil began to feel even more paranoid as he slowly began to shake Dan's body, "Dan? Dan, please say something... say anything ... just to indicate that you're alive and not dead..."

After a second or two, Phil heard Dan make a huffing sound and a smile grew across Phil's face. The noise wasn't much - it wasn't even words - but it indicated to Phil that Dan was, in fact, alive still.

Phil gripped onto Dan's shoulders and made him sit up upright against the wall, getting more blood onto his hands in the process. Dan's eyelids flickered open as Dan took in his surroundings, breathed a couple of times, before suddenly vomiting onto the tarmac next to him.

Doing his best, Phil tried to advert his eyes away from the scene. He didn't want to make Dan feel embarrassed if he had continued to stare at him as he threw up.

Dan leant his head against the wall and breathed heavily, "Why did I eat popcorn? I'm such an idiot!" He whacked his hand against his forehead.

"Popcorn's amazing though... why would you ever regret eating popcorn?" Phil questioned raising an eyebrow. Dan just mentioning the name of one of his favourite foods made Phil's mouth tingle and want to taste the buttery heaven like taste of popcorn for himself.

Dan looked towards Phil, "Ghouls aren't meant to eat human food. Cereal? Nope. Apples? Nope. Popcorn? Nope. Unless its blood or coffee, I can't have it. And since I ate popcorn... I now feel so ill..." he gripped onto his waist as he groaned in agony. The ghoul earlier kneeing him in the same place was not helping one bit, only making the pain even worse to cope with.

"I..."

Cutting Phil off, Dan continued, "I'm sorry you had to find out this way, Phil. It wasn't intended..."

"Find out what?"

"That... that I was a ghoul," Dan sighed. He looked down at his knees as he felt embarrassment making his cheeks begin to glow pink.

Phil sighed and copied Dan's actions but instead made his lowered head look towards the dead ghouls features. The grey mask it had been on his face had now fallen off, reviling that had attacked him and had been so close to murdering Dan had thick, blonde, curly hair under a dark black hood which was unzipped. Underneath it was a white t-shirt which had a massive hole in it from where Dan's weapon had priced through this guys body.

"Can... can I tell you a secret?" Phil asked as he kept his head low, avoiding all eye contact with Dan as he spoke.

"Of course you can. You can tell me anything," Dan replied.

He looked towards Phil's still lowered head. He was wearing a pale blue hoodie which now had dark red stains littering it from all the blood. Underneath this was a navy t-shirt covered in small white stars. His jeans, like Dan's, were black and skinny and finally was wearing dark navy shoes with red laces. His raven hair was slightly curled at the tips, probably due to the moisture in the air since it was Winter and freezing cold in the UK.

Dan watched as Phil sighed before looking towards Dan, both of them gazing into the others eyes, "I... I... god, I can't believe I'm actually admitting this to you," he laughed as he rested his head in the palm of his right hand.

Placing a comforting hand on Phil's shoulder, Dan gave Phil a warm smile, "It's ok. Take your time."

Phil shook his head, sighed again and looked into Dan's eyes again, Phil getting lost within their comforting brown colour, making him feel calmer.

"I... I already knew you were a ghoul..."

Dan went to open his mouth to say something but ended up closing it after not knowing what to say. What could he say? He was shocked. How did Phil know? He thought he had hid this secret so well but had Phil had noticed so easily?

"H... h... how?" Was all Dan managed to stutter out.

Phil once again placed his head into the palm of his hand, "I saw you and Connor and that girl attack that runner. I was behind a tree, watching, after I saw Connor show you that message to go to the bandstand?... I... I just got curious. I never intended to find out your secret, I promise."

"Were you the thing that made the branch snap that night?"

Phil slowly nodded, "Yeah... t-that was me."

His face looked paler than usual. He had a hint of fear in his eyes, probably nervous on how Dan was going to react to what he had just said.

"I'm... I'm glad you already knew," Dan said as Phil looked towards him confused, "I don't have to explain everything to you... you've already seen it."

Phil nodded, "I guess that's why I never really got too scared when you attacked this guy."

They both looked at the ghoul before Dan laughed aloud, "I still can't believe I killed this guy."

"Neither can I," Phil joked, "But I'm glad you did. I'd never forgive myself if you were to die and I never got to tell you how I felt..."

"How you felt?" Phil instantly covered his mouth as Dan questioned what he had just said, "What do you mean?"

"I..." Phil paused. He'd just dug himself into a massive hole, one that the only way to climb out of was to tell Dan the truth on how he felt about him. The fact that Phil had developed feelings for a guy who would probably never in his lifetime like him back. And what if Dan found it weird and disgusting what Phil felt for Dan? Would they continue to remain friends after or would that be the end?

"Phil?"

"I... I... I like you, ok?" Phil burst out whilst stumbling on a couple of the words. He couldn't hide it anymore. He wanted to get out of this hole and he knew now he was going to have Dan walk away from him for being so weird.

But instead of getting up and leaving, Dan just stared at him, "Y-You do?"

Slowly, Phil nodded, "I've tried to hide it... but I think it's getting to the point where I need to tell you before something happens and you find out in a way which isn't from me physically."

Speechless, Dan had no idea what to say back to Phil.

"If you think I'm being gross about this... you can leave. I understand..." Phil said gloomily, looking away.

Phil was nervous as he felt two hands cup his cheeks and made him look back towards Dan, who's cheeks were a faded pink glow. His hands were cold from the dried blood on them but Phil ignored that too.

What he couldn't ignore though, was when he was cut off from his (what should have been) long speech by having Dan press his lips against his own, showing that not only did Dan agree with everything Phil had said but had also had the same experiences.